The Green Universe: Carl Sagan

Sensational news stories can make badly behaved celebrities and bickering politicians seem larger than life. Luckily, the scientists who study the vast universe maintain a different perspective. This week, we'll bring you quotes and videos that reveal nature's star power.

Carl Sagan and the "Pale Blue Dot"

It might look like a grainy photograph, but take a closer look. See that tiny little dot in the middle of the yellowish band of light? Carl Sagan asked the NASA operators of the Voyager I to snap this picture as the spacecraft was leaving our solar system, to remind us of this very simple fact: "Everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was lived out their life . . . lived there."

Watch the video below to see our home planet in a new light:

 

 

--photo courtesy of NASA; video by Pale Blue Films